News Limited chief attacks bloggers, ‘online journalism’
Jul 01
In his address to the National Press Club in Canberra today News Limited CEO John Hartigan said that an ongoing investment in ‘authoritative and relevant journalism’ would ensure the survival of newspapers.
He used the occasion to criticise blogs, which “…could never fulfil the role of well-researched, brilliantly written, perceptive and accurate journalism.”
“In return for their free content, we pretty much get what we paid for – something of such limited intellectual value as to be barely discernible from massive ignorance.
“It could be said that the blogosphere is all eyeballs and no insight.”
Sites singled out for criticism included The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and closer to home Crikey and MuMbrella.
“Most of the content on these sites is commentary and opinion on media coverage produced by the major outlets.
“These sites are covered in links to wire stories or mainstream mastheads. Typically, less than 10% of their content is original reporting.”
He did, however, use the occasion to spruik News Limited’s new opinion website The Punch, paradoxically modelled on sites such as the Huffington Post. Hartigan also repeated the views of other News Limited executives in attacking Google, reiterating the possibility of a shift toward paid subscriptions.
Hartigan’s speech follows comments from News Limited’s Group Editorial Director Campbell Read, which suggested the company was ‘uncomfortable’ with its journalists using social networking sites such as Twitter.
“It’s our belief that journalists who work for us who have news to tell should do so through the vehicles they are employed to supply material for. We’re very uncomfortable with staff tweeting in a professional sense under their own names, for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is legal protection and concern about what is published.
“Like so many things that burn so brightly on the internet, we’re watching to see how it goes. We don’t want to spend a lot of time developing policies … and in three months’ time everyone’s realised it’s another way of having fairly boring conversations.”
Dave Earley of the Courier-Mail has published a directory of journalists on Twitter, including 100 News employees.
Read more analysis and coverage at Crikey, Inquisitr, The Australian, Business Spectator.
TGIF July 1st 2009